1. Using social media to raise your research profile
Dr. Ana Isabel Canhoto, Brunel University London
23rd January 2022
www.anacanhoto.com; @canhoto
2. 1. Get a digital identifier
2. Set up an online profile on key platforms
3. Make your outputs available
4. Connect with others
5. Join the conversation
6. Make your research (and knowledge)
accessible
Promoting your work on Social Media
Time
&
complexity
More on: https://anacanhoto.com/2017/05/09/6-steps-to-promote-your-work-on-
social-media-a-guide-for-academics-and-other-researchers/
3. Step 1. Create a digital identifier
• Persistent alphanumeric code,
unique to you
• Valuable for researchers:
• With very common names
• Who changed their name (e.g., as
a result of change in their marital
status)
• With names that tend to be
misspelt or incorrectly cited
https://orcid.org
Claim your outputs
4. Step 2. Create profiles on key platforms
Source: http://www.yalelawtech.org/wp-content/uploads/Evolution-of-Facebook-Privacy.jpg
Control your digital footprint
5. Step 2. Create profiles on key platforms
=> Google Scholar https://scholar.google.co.uk/intl/en/
scholar/citations.html#setup
• For those already searching for
academic work and authors
• Ensures that your work is
credited to you
• Overview of the work that you
have done, and its popularity
• Get alerts when your work is
cited
6. Step 2. Create profiles on key platforms
=> Academic social networks https://www.researchgate.net
https://www.academia.edu
• Social networks focused on
research professionals
• Can share open source /
pre-print copies of own work
• Increasingly used by MSc /
PhD students to follow the
authors mentioned in their
syllabuses
• But narrow appeal
7. Step 2. Create profiles on key platforms
• Great way to stay in contact
with professionals you have met
(e.g., at an academic
conference, or industry
meeting), and alumni
• Broad appeal
=> Professional social networks
www.linkedin.com
8. Step 2. Create profiles on key platforms
=> Personal website Examples: Wordpress,
weebly…
• Control what you share, and
how you share it
• More flexible than institutional
profile
• Experiment with different
templates or styles
• Link to your social network
profiles, social media
accounts, and so on
• Still there, even if you change
10. Step 2. Create profiles on key platforms
Some tips:
• Choose name / username,
carefully
• Think long term
• Name institutional affiliation?
• Pros and cons
• Disclaimers are worthless
• Research interests
• Link to other platforms, as relevant
• Same photo across platforms
• Professional photo (no sunglasses)
11. Step 3. Make your outputs available
Increase reach of your work beyond HEI
e.g., Social network websites
12. Step 3. Make your outputs available
e.g., Slide share
13. Step 3. Make your outputs available
e.g., Personal website
14. Tip:
Do NOT share research findings before they have
been reported in paper which has already been
accepted for publication.
This is not so much a matter of plagiarism (on the
contrary, it might help you in a dispute), but rather
a matter of originality of your research (which is a
key criterion of acceptance by top journals).
15. Step 4. Connect with others
Develop your professional network, and keep up with
developments in your field
e.g., Social networking websites